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St Augustine's Mission Partner Support St Augustine's Church, Locking, supports a number of individuals and institutions who are committed to telling people about God and what He can accomplish in people's lives through faith in Jesus Christ. 1. Church Pastoral Aid Society (CPAS) Founded in the 1830's by Lord Shaftsbury the vision of CPAS was to 'take the Gospel to every person's door with the single purpose of glorifying God'. CPAS takes the Bible as its authority and prayer as its heartbeat in proclaiming its message. Today the vision remains the same and CPAS is committed to serving the church in a world changing in technology, communication and lifestyles. As a major Anglican UK based mission society, it seeks to help church leaders whether lay or ordained who are working to meet the needs of people facing loneliness, guilt, family breakdown and poverty . This is carried out by providing support through training and resources for leaders; advice and counselling; strategies for outreach; professional assistance with clergy appointments and providing Christian holidays with a purpose for children and young people. 2. Christian Action Research and Education (CARE) CARE is a mainstream Christian charity involved with caring, campaigning and communicating. It aims to declare Christian Truth and demonstrate Christ's compassion. This is carried out by providing radical caring initiatives with the help of thousands of volunteers across the UK. These include various projects such as the Homes Programme which provides up to 350 selected Christian homes as a safe refuge for people in need; The Remand Fostering Scheme which works with Social Services to provide foster homes for young offenders; The Special Hospitality Project to help and improve the life of adults with learning disabilities: CARElink which connects people to the right kind of help they need and CHILDlink which provides information on a large number of childcare issues. CARE provides support to Christian teachers and parents as they seek to apply their faith to the world of education in schools. CARE strongly supports the institution of marriage and provides guidance for newly married couples. A recent publication from CARE for Education equips and informs teachers, governors and parents to influence the nature of sex and relationship education in their local schools. Through its close contacts with Westminster, CARE lobbies politicians and policy makers on moral issues such as abortion, euthanasia, human cloning and genetic engineering. 3. The Bible Society UK The Bible Society's motto is "Sharing the Word with the World". The task of BS is to make the Bible available, in different languages and in different formats, to as many people as possible. This work is part of the central mission of the church: to provide the Scriptures that Christians will use to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ. The BS believes passionately that the Bible is indispensable for the future well being of our world and that by working through a global alliance of supporters, churches and Societies the vision to make the Bible heard will be fulfilled. As technology and cultures change, so the ways in which BS enables people to gain access to the Word of God has changed. The Bible Society is involved in:
Today the United Bible Societies (UBS) has a fellowship of 137 member Bible Societies in over 200 countries. 4. Crosslinks - Formerly the Bible Churchmen's Missionary Society (BCMS) Starting in London in 1924 as the Bible Churchmen's Missionary Society, it changed to Crosslinks in 1992 since the words "Bible", "Church" and "Missionary" were not acceptable in some 60 countries in which the BCMS worked. The aim of Crosslinks is to make known the redeeming love of God in Christ crucified and risen and to make disciples of all nations by ensuring that God's Word is clearly proclaimed by word and deed in the Power of the Holy Spirit. This aim is carried out by:
No longer is the term used "the west to the rest". It is now "everywhere to everywhere". Crosslinks is the first missionary society to employ full time staff in nature conservancy projects as a means to demonstrate to the world that we are stewards of God's creation. The first project was set up in Portugal as the A Rocha Trust. 5. Church Mission Society (CMS) Founded in 1799 CMS has attracted about 9000 men and women to serve as mission partners during its 200 year history. CMS is a voluntary association of people closely linked to the Church of England who are united in obedience to Christ's command to fulfil the Great Commission, which is 'to go forth to every part of the world and proclaim the Good News to the whole creation'. (St. Mark 15:16).
David and Heather are closely involved with the growing church in Sudan and have opportunities for witness, teaching and encouragement amongst the local population. 6. South American Mission Society (SAMS) The South American Mission Society began in the early 1800,s and the fist English Anglican congregation was established in Buenos Aires in 1825. It works in the Southern Cone of South America which includes Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. Locking has a close association with SAMS since Dorothy Parsons, daughter of the late Cannon Martin and Emily Parsons of Elm Tree Road married Bishop David Evans who served many years in South America and before his retirement in June 2003 was the General Secretary of the Mission. The aim of SAMS is to seek to help the Churches of England and Wales and the Scottish Episcopal Church to become linked in partnership with the Churches of South America, Brazil, Portugal and Spain. Much of the current work by SAMS partners is to strengthen the local churches, introduce Alpha courses, develop programmes for street children and other young people. 7. The Church army The Church Army has been at the heart of evangelism within the established Church since it was founded in 1882. Its founder Rev. Wilson Charlie sought to take the Good News of Jesus Christ to those people who would not normally have contact with the Church. Its aim is to serve the Church in area evangelism through giving vision, encouragement and support; developing local strategies; training and resourcing local churches for outreach and identifying individuals in local churches with evangelistic gifts and potential. Church Army evangelists share the Christian faith through words and action and equip others to do the same. There are currently 400 officers and 350 other staff working throughout the British Isles in helping churches cater for the spiritual and physical needs of children and young people, Church planting, homeless people and older people, believing that each person is special in God's sight and has a right to be reached with the Good news of the Gospel. 8. Tearfund Tearfund is a Christian development and relief charity working with partners to bring help and hope to communities in need around the world. In 2001, Tearfund supported over 600 projects in more than 80 countries. Tearfund has been at the forefront to lobby government to cancel third world debt for the betterment of local communities. It advocates for justice and hope for those facing persecution, develops strategies for sustainable livelihoods for those living in marginal environments and responds rapidly in bringing relief to those suffering disasters through natural causes such as hurricanes, volcanoes, floods and droughts.
In the UK, Tearfund has been implementing a special programme through partner churches to help people along the refugee highway by providing drop-in centres, advice on immigration and housing as well as after schools clubs and English language courses. St Augustine's supports special collections for disaster relief coordinated through Tearfund. The most recent one has been for the relief of millions of people in southern Africa badly affected by recent floods and droughts that have ruined harvests.
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Missions
The
aim of CMS is to strive to share the love of God with people of all
races and to bring them into faith in Jesus Christ and fellowship in
His Church. Mission partners become involved in numerous activities
in seeking to fulfil the Great Commission. These include leadership
training and theological education, support for small and struggling
churches, evangelism and church planting, community development and
health care and work among refugees and migrant peoples. 
St
Augustine's provides prayer and financial support to David and Heather
Sharland. They are working in twelve Dioceses in Southern Sudan, among
people of many different tribal groups, encouraging and supporting the
church, in agriculture, health and development. They seek to help build
up the self-esteem of the people and develop adeeper faith in God through
various projects. These include fish farming, bee keeping, fruit and
vegetable production, HIV/AIDS teaching, women's health issues and Community
Health workers training. 
St,
Augustines maintains a special relationship with the Rev Steve and Heather
Carter who are based in Montevideo, Uruguay, with their children Luke,
Bethany and Philip. Steve is the Parish Priest to the 'Church of the
Holy Spirit' in Currasco and is also Diocesan Advisor for the Alpha
Course, Diocesan Co-ordinator for music, Chaplain to the British Hospital
and Royal British Legion. With the recent crash in the local economy,
the church is setting up soup kitchens for the poor, a night shelter
for children living on the streets with a second one opening for adults
during the winter time and a shelter for AIDS victims recently released
from hospital. His wife, Heather was ordained Deacon in 2002 and is
now deacon-in-charge for the English-speaking congregation at the Cathedral.
With her proficiency in sign language, Heather meets weekly with deaf
people for handicrafts and a chat and 2 of them have come along to Alpha
courses..
Susheela, 31, is beaten by her husband
- beacuse she is a Christian. Her
neighbours say that they will kill her unless she stops holding
prayer meetings in her home.